A/N: Wow, thank you so much for all the reviews you guys! You have no idea how much they really encouraged me to write faster and a better chapter. Keep 'em coming!

Sorry for the delay on the chapter, I had some school stuff to do and got some medical news I had to deal with. I promise I'm gonna try and update more often.

Hope you like this new one. In the light of recent events on the show, this is quickly becoming not alternate universe. The only thing really different from the show is that Veronica had a relationship with Weevil a while back.

Somewhere Along the Way

CH 3: ... Set You Free?

Author: Hider (http/hider. not mine, duh

"So..." Veronica asked with a slight bitter-sweet chuckle. "Have any idea where we're sitting?" She turned to look at Logan, who was standing beside her.

"Nope." He said simply, turning to meet her eyes. "You?"

"Nope." They both laughed and looked back at the crowds in front of them. The two were standing outside, Logan holding both their books while Veronica had a tray full of food. "How about the empty one?" She gestured with a nod of her head to a deserted corner where no one was sitting.

It was neutral territory, or really hers. Logan had his clique of friends, and she had Wallace. Even he had been a little distant lately, hanging out with his new friends at the jock table. They always welcomed her, but being the only girl at a table full of testosterone wasn't always the best match. So most of the time she settled for a table by herself where she could eat and work on her cases, or pretend to work on her cases while her and Logan stared at each other. Neither one of them were very discreet.

"Sure, why not?" He said easily as he dipped his finger in the pudding on the tray and licked it as he started walking towards the table. She gave him a look but he just returned it with a charming smile, to which she rolled her eyes.

"So, how was English?" He asked once they had sat down. She just looked at him. "What?" Logan asked as he moved the tray between them and dipped a handful of fries in the pudding before shoving them into his mouth.

"We are not resorting to small talk."

"So I guess commenting on the weather would be a bad way to go?"

"I'm gonna have to go with ya on that." She looked down at the tray and frowned. "Damn, I forgot ranch. I'll be right back." She went to slide off the bench, but he was up before she even turned around.

"Don't worry about it, I got it." He said easily.

"Um... okay." She gave him a questioning look but he just turned around and quickly dodged other students to get back inside the cafeteria. It wasn't long before she lost him in the crowd and turned back to her food.

It was a weird quirk that both her and Logan shared, the ranch. They ate it on everything, though he was way worse than her. It was just on stuff ranch was suppose to be on like salads, or dipping veggies in, but pizza too, or French fries. Logan loved his French fries and ate them with about everything too, usually just dipping them in whatever was close by, hence the chocolate pudding.

Veronica smiled to herself as she dipped a fry into the pudding and ate it. She was so consumed in her own thoughts she didn't notice the familiar figure approaching until it stopped in front of her.

Logan was only about a halfway through the cafeteria when he felt a strong grip tighten around his upper arm. He turned around quickly, but he felt his smile slip off his face when he saw who the arm belonged too. Logan looked down and mimicked looking at his watch.

"Wow, only took you... four hours? I'm impressed, have to say I thought it'd be at least six or seven." He cocked his head sarcastically.

"We need to talk." Duncan's face didn't change once throughout the encounter.

"No, I really don't think we do."

"What are you doing?" Duncan asked, ignoring Logan's objection.

"Right now? Walking away from you." He quickly jerked his arm from Duncan's grasp and turned to walk away.

"Do you really think you two are gonna last?" Duncan just followed him from behind and Logan could feel his jaw clench in annoyance. "She doesn't even care about you man."

Logan took a deep breath and kept walking, telling himself that Duncan was just trying to get a rise out of him. He wanted a fight, and Logan wasn't going to give it to him.

"She's a slut and liar and she's just using you to get back at me." Logan's fists balled into fists at his side and he quickly turned around to face Duncan.

"I'm not fighting you Duncan, so just turn around and walk away."

"We're friends, maybe you've forgotten that but I haven't and friends help friends out."

"So calling my girlfriend a slut and a liar is helping out? Wow, what a great friend you are."

"I'm just trying to warn you."

"Warn me?" Logan let out a sound of disbelief. "From Veronica?" He shook his head and a finger at Duncan, pointing. "That's a good one."

"I'm serious."

"Veronica doesn't lie to me." The mocking and lightness were out of his tone and he stared at Duncan with cold brown eyes.

"Really?" Duncan ignored the cold stare and laughed. "You know about Weevil then?" Logan tried to hide his confusion but failed. "Yeah, looks like she's told you everything." He nodded and shook his head condescendingly. "Why don't you ask her, see what she says... then we'll see if she lies to you or not."

Duncan turned around and walked away, leaving Logan standing in the middle of the cafeteria.

He grabbed some packets of ranch off the condiment table and quickly stalked across the cafeteria, weaving and pushing his way through the people in his way. Duncan was the liar in the scenario, always had been lately. He was sick of his bullshit, he was just mad because he had screwed up with Veronica and Logan had been smart enough to see what a great person she really was.

As soon as he pushed through the doors, he regretted it. The anger melted away and fear crept in his veins, fear that Duncan wasn't bullshitting this time. Veronica was still sitting at their table, but standing beside her was Weevil, as if Duncan's accusation had brought him about. She was looking down from Weevil's gaze, but they were speaking.

"What's going on Veronica?"

"Eli..." She trailed off and looked down at her hands, unable to meet his eyes. The conversation was inevitable, but she had hoped to avoid it for at least a couple days. She should have known better. It was Eli she was talking about. He had confrontation and bitter truth written all over him. That and his carelessness attitude was what attracted her to him in the first place, the soft guy under the exterior was what made her stay.

Sitting there, avoiding his gaze, she could see Eli coming through. Weevil was the guy with the hard exterior everyone knew and feared, the one that had gotten locked up more times then she even cared to know about. Eli was the real guy underneath it all. When it came down to it, she was just like him, putting up the wall to avoid the pain.

He saw the way things really were, knew that the real world was full of cold and bitterness, backstabbing and pain. Weevil was his defense mechanism. You didn't dare hurt someone you were afraid of.

"It's Weevil." His indifferent tone was what hurt her the most, the way he didn't seem to care either way. Deep down she knew he did, and that just made Veronica feel all the worse. She had hurt him, even if he would never admit it, she knew she had.

Veronica gave a stiff nod in response and glanced back up at him.

"So.."

"You with Echolls now?" He got straight to the point.

Veronica looked down again and nodded. He had a way of making her feel ashamed for something she

shouldn't be and wasn't around anyone but him. Back in the old days, he held her accountable. When she got too bitchy, or snapped for no reason, he called her on her bullshit. Just because they changed, didn't mean he would.

"Thin line between love and hate I guess..." He reasoned. This time he was the one that avoided looking at her, but chose to glance around him instead of looking down. He was never one for looking inferior. "You and Lily were always so much alike... I shoulda known you would've liked the guy."

Veronica brought her eyes up and looked at him. She knew it took a lot for him to bring up Lily, he had really loved her. Coming from him, the comparison was a compliment in the biggest way and also the worst.

"Lily loved you." He still wouldn't meet her eyes but moved his head slightly in her direction. "Logan wasn't... he wasn't what you were to her."

"Yeah, well that didn't stop her from running right back to him every time."

"She was scared."

"Is that what you were Veronica Mars? Scared? Scared anyone might actually love you?" His eyes burned into her and she couldn't take it. He just shook his head and went back to looking elsewhere. A silence fell between them.

"I'm sorry." She whispered timidly.

"For what? It's not like we were... anything, just there, two Kane cast offs blowing time." His words felt like a sharp stab in her chest, the casualness in his voice, the twisting of the knife.

"Eli-"

"Weevil."

"No." Veronica stood up and looked at him. He faced her, but wasn't really looking at her. "You're Eli to me, you always will be. You weren't nothing ok? Don't think that."

"Veronica..."

"Stop saying it like that!"

"No!" His eyes bore into hers with more anger than she had seen him use on anybody but his gang. Even then, Weevil had an eerie calmness about him. Whether ordering the beating of someone, telling off a public defender, or being rejected by whoever, it was always a calm deep anger.

Now it was out in the open and his face was etched with it. Veronica couldn't look into the eyes that bore into hers.

"Ronnie?"

Veronica looked up and instantly realized that it wasn't Weevil that addressed her. She quickly turned to see Logan standing with a confused and suspicious look on his face.

"I.. uh, got your..." He lifted his hand and gestured to the ranch packs wedged in his palm and placed them face down on the tray. His eyes darted back and forth between the two. "Did I interrupt something?"

Weevil answered for her before she could even formulate a thought.

"Not at all." Weevil turned to look at Veronica. "We're done." They both knew his words carried multiple meanings. Whatever between them was over, their partnership and truce was finished, their friendship. As far as he was concerned she didn't exist anymore.

With his last parting words he turned and walked away. Logan looked at her curiously, his eyes asking unanswered questions she ignored.

"Come on, let's eat. All your fries are gonna be cold and we know how grouchy Logan is without his fries." She attempted a joke but it came out stiff as they sat down.

Logan glanced at her, knowing there was a lot she wasn't telling him. He wasn't going to accuse or pester. That would only drive her away and Logan wasn't sure if he could take loosing another girl he loved...

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